“In the Torah [the first five books ofthe Old Testament], God says no lessthan 36 times to love the stranger asyourself,” he says. “He does it, I believe,not because it’s the most important com-mandment, but because it’s the one thatneeds the most explanation. We need tobe constantly reminded, because it’s tooeasy to mistreat or shut out somebodywho’s an outsider, and that’s why it’srepeated so many times.”By 2006, most Jews had left the SovietUnion and for the first time, non-Jewsrepresented a majority of the organi-zation’s clientele. ;ey now compriseabout 95 percent, and more than half areMuslims. As Hetfield is fond of saying,“We help them not because they areJewish but because we are Jewish.”Jews helping refugees have alwaysbeen a natural target for nativists andanti-Semites, and as Hetfield notes,“We have been ignoring for too long thatthere are lots of hate sites out there thatfixate on HIAS. But we just figured itwas noise, and we tuned it out and wenton with our work.”;ey cannot ignore the haters anylonger, and the Trump administrationhas made matters much worse, he says,inflaming fears and slamming doors.Only 22,491 refugees were admitted inthe fiscal year that ended in September,the lowest total in 40 years and a frac-tion of President Obama’s annual goal of110,000. “It’s a total abdication of Ameri-can leadership,” Hetfield contends. “Wecan’t pressure other countries to pro-tect refugees because we’re not doing itourselves.”“My gray hairs have definitely dou-bled” since Pittsburgh, Hetfield admits.But he is determined not to let down orgive up. If you are a believer, and Godtells you 36 times to “love the stranger,”you keep doing it. n

Steve Roberts teaches journalism and
politics at George Washington University. His memoir, My Fathers’ Houses,
tells the story of his own family’s migration to America. Send ideas for future
columns to sroberts@gwu.edu.